I’d like to extend the challenge for all TOTF members to post what or who got them started in CrossFit. Read some awesome stories in yesterday’s posts, but I know there are many more of you out there. Share your story!
Day 89 of the 100-Day Burpee Challenge!
WOD:
“Run, Pull, Run, Push, Run”
For Time:
400M Run
30 Chest 2 Bar Pull ups
400M Run
30 Handstand Push Ups *
400M Run
Post time to Comments/LogWOD
*If you want to use an ab mat under your head, to be RX’d, you must have your hands on 25# plates
Video courtesy of CrossFit Santa Clara. Kipping Handstand Push Ups can come in handy today.
Cash Out:
100 Banded Good Mornings
100 Barbell Rollouts
(breakup as needed)
Firebreather Piece (Done on your own outside of class time):
CrossFit Team Offutt Tactical Fitness 
My first exposure to CrossFit was in the Summer of 2010 by a guy named Nate Hansen who was working on his masters degree from Bellevue University. He told me about some type of workout and said, “You should do it.” I didn’t know anything about it and thought it would be alright to try. Man, was I wrong. This CrossFit workout at Bellevue University was nothing like the Ultimate Frisbee I played with Nate. Each day was terribly hard. I was the new guy and consequently always the guy who finished last. The only day I liked was a clean and push jerk because the first half was something that I knew from high school weightlifting class. I only lasted one month because I couldn’t take the intense feeling of wanting to puke and stumbling through the 400m runs that followed movements I didn’t know how to do.
I went back to distance running and lifting weights in the middle of the Field where I followed the workout routine Brad Pitt used to prepare for the movie Fight Club. No there was no actual fighting involved…
After a year went by, I had been running marathons and working on my “beach body.” It was at the finish of the Papillion half marathon that I met a guy standing at the GNC recovery who told me about a gym he had. He said it was a CrossFit gym and that I could try it out for free. I told him about my experience at Bellevue University, but that I would check his out anyways. It was about a month until I got up the courage to face what I thought was “too hard” again.
I showed up to my first CrossFit class at that gym at 0600 only meet Jenifer Crawford-Peterson for the first time. She was the morning coach to lead us through the warm up and workout. Little did I know about this subject matter, the Workout of the Day was Fran. Thankfully she scaled the weight so this met-con really was a met-con, not my prior experience with the drawn out endurance WODs. I was hooked and became religious to it. I love the constant variance of the workouts, the community involved with the gym, the adrenaline pumping, and always the need to get better in every modality. I have been on it ever since.
I started CrossFit in Columbia, SC in a little bitty box called Carolina Crossfit. I went in not being able to jump to a 12″ box, not being able to press more than the smallest bar in there, and using multiple bands to throw my chin JUST past the bar. I was out of shape, in the military, and getting schooled by people twice, even three times my age. I thought to myself, “WHAAT??! How can this be??? I am considered to be in the top 96th percent of the Air Force….I am fit!…..right?” well, no. I was not even close to fit, but I ate my slice of humble pie and stuck with it until I gradually gained weight (in both muscle and plates on the bar) and confidence in myself to compete against the finest. Who were, let me remind you again, twice and three times my age. When I moved to Omaha, I was and still am a work in progress, but now have been given the greatest opportunity to coach at TactFit and I love every minute of it. The sound of perfect strangers cheering others through a tough wod, the famous knuckle bump you give to people afterwards while they catch their breath….TotactFit has changed my world forever, and I can’t wait to see how we all progress together in the next year!